Petroleum Pioneers to celebrate milestone anniversary

Published 7:00 pm, Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Milestone anniversaries in the domestic oil and gas industry occurred this year, along with a milestone special to the Permian Basin oil industry.

The nation last month celebrated the 150th anniversary of the drilling of Edwin Drake’s well in Pennsylvania, largely credited with launching the U.S. oil and gas industry. On September 18, the Permian Basin Petroleum Pioneers will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a reunion at the Petroleum Museum.

Robert Leibrock, reunion chairman, said members are excited to mark this milestone anniversary of the organization’s founding. They are also excited, he said, to be honoring T.B. O’Brien as this year’s Top Pioneer. O’Brien will become the eight award recipient, joining the ranks of Jno. P. Butler, Bill Collyns, Maurice Bullock, Harvey Herd, Robert. M. Leibrock Sr., Decker Dawson and Myra Robinson.

“It’s rather awesome considering the people comprising the group that preceded me,” said O’Brien, who recalled his first visit to the Permian Basin in 1951 or 1952, sent by Gulf Oil from New Orleans because he had experience with a string of tubing the company planned to run in the region. It turns out, O’Brien noted, that the tubing was never run but while he waited he got to tour the area and made frequent return visits, sometimes for a couple of days, sometimes for a couple of weeks. After 19 years, he left Gulf to move to Midland and go to work for Bill Roden for what he said was about twice what he earned at Gulf. In 1976, he started O’Brien-Goens Engineering and has gained a reputation for his development of methods for control of threatened well blowouts and key innovations in deep drilling.

Developing a reputation, O’Brien said, means “batting better than .500.” In his career, he said, he had a lot of friends “and learned how to listen to people who knew what they were doing. I tried to improve on things besides what they had done.” He said he also had a lot of help and cited two specific instances. Once was shortly after arriving in the Permian Basin and working three deep wells and being asked to run a drill stem test. “I’d worked in parts of the world where they’d never run drill stem tests,” O’Brien recalled. “I knew what it was but didn’t know what the tools were. A guy by the name of Sherman Lee, who was I think a scout at Pan-Am at the time, saw I didn’t know how to run a drill stem test. He and the tester talked me through it. Then there was Charlie Richardson, now retired on a ranch in New Mexico. He was a drilling superintendent for Parker Drilling and one of the best hands I ever worked with. He got me out of a lot of scrapes.”

Working in the oil patch, O’Brien said, “is an exciting way to make a living. When you’re working on something you can’t see at all, Mother Nature sometimes intentionally tries to make it difficult. A lot of times it’s not easy, but when you win one, it feels pretty good.”

Leibrock said there has been “a lot of speculation about what the next 50 years will be like for the oil and gas industry. I think the oil industry will be around, especially in the Permian Basin with its advanced techniques.”

He likes to cite a comment made by past Top Pioneer Decker Dawson, founder of Dawson Geophysical. Several years ago, Dawson stated, “Today’s pioneers are a different sort, but pioneers nonetheless — not among the first to arrive but among the first to develop new methods and technologies. There are pioneers being born every day.”

Leibrock agreed that there are “pioneers born every day. A notable example is the guys who figured out how to drill and complete the Wolfberry.”

The reunion will begin with registration and coffee at 8:30 a.m., with Judge John Hyde showing an updated slide show of Midland’s history.

Members will also discuss what direction the Petroleum Pioneers will take in the future. Leibrock pointed out that members “are not getting any younger” and many are finding it hard to travel to Midland for the reunions.

Lunch at noon will offer “traditional Permian Basin oil field fare” and the presentation of the Top Pioneer award. The reunion will conclude with an afternoon reception.